Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Fire chief’s amazing escape caught on CCTV

Manchester Fire Service has released amazing video showing a firefighter's narrow escape from a building that crashes to the ground just inches away from him. The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service attended a blaze at a derelict building in Rochdale when the incident occurred last year.

The footage, filmed from a nearby passing fire engine, shows Paul Anderson walking away from the scene of the fire. As he turns to glance behind him the upper wall of the building bulges outwards and collapses to the ground just inches for him. As the clouds of dust billow around him Anderson is seen walking nonchalantly away from the scene before finally turning to look behind him.

Anderson, a Watch Manager at the Lyne Fire Station said: "I had checked the house next door, which was also empty. I came out, walked five paces past the two houses then it dropped. There is a little bit of a Chuck Berry skip in my walk as it goes. I could sense in the periphery of my vision that there was something not quite right.

"But there had been nothing at the incident that gave us cause for concern regarding a possible collapse of the property. It emerged later that the roof timbers at the back of the property had dropped and the wall ties in the property had not been replaced." The incident occurred last September and has been released as part of a health and safety training programme for its staff and other fire and rescue services in the UK.